by Sumida, Amy
“Oh, you're still here,” I jerked back from Arach and he gave a long suffering sigh before he leaned back so I could finish my conversation with Faerie.
I am ever here.
“But if you're still speaking to me it must be for a reason,” I cast a glance at my waiting dragon and wasn't surprised to see smoke drifting out of one of his nostrils.
I feel strange of late. There are fey I can't find.
“King Cian has opened the way to the Human Realm now,” I reassured her. “They're probably there.”
Yes, perhaps. And then she was blessedly gone.
“I always feel like I've missed something and I won't figure it out until later, whenever I talk to her,” I shook my head.
“Hmph,” he nodded, “riddles. She loves riddles.”
“Not exactly a riddle,” I thought over her words. “She's told me a few times that she wants me here to bring change to the fey. Now she's told me that it's the reason she brought me here in the first place, and she implied that the change will bring back the fertility.”
“She did? So what's this change you're supposed to bring about?”
“That's just it, I haven't the foggiest.”
“Well great,” he huffed, “I'm glad that's all settled.
Chapter Two
We made love until we couldn't move and then just laid there panting happily. The bed was still intact thankfully, not a single scorch mark to be found. So we could go straight to sleep without calling for someone to bring us a new mattress. It was nice.
Arach, in the way of most males, fell asleep rather quickly, clutching me tightly to his chest in a way that made me smile yet at the same time gave me concern over being smothered in my sleep. Then I remembered I was immortal and couldn't be killed quite so easily. I fell off pretty quickly after that.
My dreams were strange though. I wandered through a dark forest in the Human Realm, a forest so dark, the darkness was its own entity. Though I couldn't see anything in the inky black, I knew there were eyes within it because I could feel them watching me. They wanted something from me, something that I couldn't live without.
A jolt of fear sent me running and I stumbled over fallen logs, bushes, and assorted other foliage obstacles, as the dark impeded my vision. It shouldn't have, impeded my vision that is. I had the enhanced vision of a lioness and a dragoness. Running through the forest at night shouldn't have been a problem.
I kept tripping, reaching through the black for something to steady myself, until finally the dark receded and I saw the path. I pushed my way through clinging weeds to get to it and stood on the hard packed dirt with relief. Then I noticed the light up ahead.
I wandered closer carefully, a feeling of dread sinking into my skin. The forest was quiet, no sounds of wind through the trees, no scurrying of tiny creatures or careful stepping of larger ones. Not even a bird cooed or cricket chirped to ease the deafening silence. It was like walking through one of those haunted house experiences they set up at Halloween, I just knew something bad was coming. Then I stepped out into a brightly lit clearing and my hand flew to my chest in horror.
The ground was covered in a thick carpet of grass, it spread out to either side, where it met a fringe of trees and undergrowth at its edges. The trees hovered around the clearing like sentinels, their branches dangling inward as if trying to protect or hide whoever stood within. It was all lush and beautiful, colors crisp and welcoming. Which made what laid inside it all the more horrifying.
In the center of the clearing was a pile of bodies. At first I thought they were mummified, they were so emaciated, but then I saw that their skin was shriveled not preserved and their eyes were still solid, staring at me with brilliant colors as if they were still alive. I couldn't tell what they'd been in life but I knew they weren't human. The appendages were strange, the bone structure not quite right, and the shriveled skins were in colors no human had ever been born with. These were fey bodies.
“You must stop this!” A woman appeared beside them suddenly, pointing down at them in anger. “I can't see the path, it's shrouded in darkness,” her arm shifted, to point instead at the path I'd come down and it was indeed dark once more. “You must pierce the darkness for me, become my eyes to see where I cannot, my hands to reach where I cannot go. You must bring justice to those who have done this!” Back to pointing at the bodies again.
She was magnificent, her hair every color at once, her eyes shifting through the spectrum as she spoke. Even her features altered, taking on different aspects of all the fey while maintaining a basic sidhe foundation. Her skin was very pale one minute, glowing like a pearl, and then grew darker until she practically blended into her surroundings. She had horns, then wings, then cloven hooves. Fish scales and then dragon scales, eyes like the sky and then like fire. It was dizzying and awe inspiring.
“Faerie?” I asked carefully.
“Yes, yes,” she frowned impatiently. “Have you learned nothing? Pay attention! You wanted me to be clearer, well how clear can I get if you won't look?” She jabbed her finger at the pile again. “Magic comes with a price and I demand its payment. I've given you back your fey magic, now give me this fey murderer! Find them for me, Vervain,” her voice softened. “Help me.”
I woke up, eyes jerking open, and searched the silent room with a racing heart. Arach slept on beside me, oblivious to my distress but at least he was whole, not shriveled like those bodies. I rubbed my hands over my face as my heart slowed and I realized it had just been a dream. It had felt so real.
Because it was real.
I bolted up into a sitting position, disrupting Arach enough to wake him. He sat up beside me, eyes immediately scanning the room for possible threats as his hands turned to claws. I waved him back down with an apologetic look.
“Did you send me that dream?” I asked Faerie as Arach frowned and laid back down.
You said you wanted clarity. Those missing fey, I've felt their deaths. They have been murdered.
“You could have just said that,” I grumbled.
You had to be shown.
“And she's gone again,” I groaned and fell back against the pillows.
“Faerie is sending you dreams now?” Arach asked as he pulled me against his chest, his hands back to normal.
“It would seem so,” I swallowed hard. “She says there's been some murders.”
“Murders?” He had an almost excited tone to his voice and I looked up with an admonishing glare. “What? The Host gets to hunt murderers, can't I be a little excited for another hunt?”
“Not when it means innocent fey are dying.”
“Oh, sweet darling girl,” he smiled down at me, “the fey are never innocent.”
Chapter Three
I had wanted to mirror the High King immediately but Arach said the only death you should wake the High King of Faerie for was his own. Dead fey couldn't get more dead, as he put it, and they could wait till the dawn to disrupt King Cian. So we'd gone back to sleep, I with a little more difficulty than he, and left the problem for morning.
Now we sat in front of the mirror on my dressing table, talking to King Cian, Arach calm and collected and I with tapping feet and fidgeting hands, my stomach gurgling around the contents of my breakfast. I let Arach speak because the last time I'd mentioned something Faerie had said to me to King Cian, I'd almost started a fey war.
“I've had no reports of missing fey,” King Cian frowned, “but if Faerie says it's so, then it must be. I'll send word to the other three kingdoms, asking if any of their own have gone missing. Have you taken stock of your fey?”
“Yes,” Arach nodded confidently. “This morning I had Fearghal make the rounds and mirror all of the villages. All are accounted for.”
“King Cian,” I couldn't contain myself any longer. “It may be a good idea to have the kingdoms verify that even those who have ventured forth into the Human Realm are still alive and well. Faerie had only thought them missing until last night, then she felt their deaths.”
“A good idea,” Cian nodded. “I'll consult with Faerie also and see if she can tell me anything more. Despite the bad news, we are pleased to have you here with us, Queen Vervain.”
“Thank you,” I nodded, “it looks like I may be staying for awhile this time, though I guess it really doesn't make a difference to you guys since I'll return immediately, with the help of my father's ring.”
“Well then there's one light in the darkness,” the High King smiled but I frowned, remembering the darkness in the dream. “Queen Vervain, are you alright?”
“A Thaisce?” Arach's hand came around my waist.
“I'm fine,” I waved their concern away, “merely remembering another detail of the dream. There was darkness, such that I couldn't see through it, and Faerie said she couldn't see past it either.”
“Could be a metaphor,” King Cian scrunched up his perfect face, turning the gold skin to bronze in places, “but often Faerie can be quite literal. We'll have to remember it and see where it leads us.”
“And be sure to take a flashlight,” I grimaced as they both laughed.
Chapter Four
There had been no word from the King and I got tired of waiting. I'd already done some quick hellos to my fire fey but I wanted to spend some quality time with a few in particular, so I wandered the corridors with a book under my arm, listening for the sound of dogs.
“There you are!” I declared triumphantly as I rounded a corner.
Sure enough, there were a bunch of dogs in, well, a dog pile. They were young dogs, still a little awkward and gangly, though I guess you couldn't call them puppies. They yipped excitedly when they saw me and stumbled over each other in their haste to get to me. I laughed as I knelt near them and they came scrambling up and over me, tongues wet on my face and red eyes brightly glowing.
“I'm going to go see the Hidden Ones and read them a story,” I held up the book. “Do you want to come with me?”
In a shivering rush of magic, they all transformed and I got smothered by a bunch of toddlers. All naked and all screeching happily. I toppled under the onslaught and for a few minutes all I could see was laughing faces and fleshy limbs.
“Here now,” a woman stood over us, clothed in a simple brown sheath. She had wild dark hair and glowing red eyes. “Get off the Queen and show some manners, you rapid pack of dogs!” She smiled at me and offered me a hand up. “It's good to see you, Queen Vervain.”
“Neala?” I studied her lean face, so serious and yet so sweet. It was the first time I'd seen the phooka female in human form. Her eyes were large, with a black rim around them, and her ears went up in a little point that was tipped in brown fur. She had a sharp chin and fair skin.
“Yes,” she smiled wider and then was attacked by her children. “Och now, stop that or no story time with the Queen!” They settled immediately, plopping down on their butts with doggy whines. “Better,” she nodded. “You'd best change back to pups, it'll be easier to follow.” They all did as they were told and sat up waiting expectantly with rapidly wagging tails. “Right then, Queen Vervain, where are we headed?”
“Down to see the Hidden Ones,” I laughed at her shocked expression. “You don't have to come if you don't want to.”
The Hidden Ones were called such for a reason. They hid themselves until they were needed. They lived below the castle, in caverns with rivers of lava flowing through them. I'd brought them up, out of hiding as it were, and the House of Fire had become more at ease with them but they still had an affect that was hard to ignore. Even I, who knew their hearts, had trouble looking on them sometimes.
They were made to be terrifying, an integral part of the Host, and they did their jobs well. I almost passed out the first time I saw them. Their shapes were strange conglomerations of bodies that shouldn't go together, hooves on a chitinous carapace, scorpion tails attached to matted fur. They dripped foul things, and laughed at inappropriate times, kind of like frat boys really, but inside those horrible exteriors were beings of magic who wanted love and laughter just like anyone else.
“No,” Neala shook her head determinedly, “we'll go. It'll be good for the children to see there's nothing to fear of the Hidden Ones. As long as they behave,” she gave them a narrow-eyed look and the pups went silent.
“Thank you,” I leaned over and gave her a hug, since it was the first time I'd been able to hug her, and she'd done so much deserving of a hug, for so long. “It's good to speak with you as a person.”
“Yes,” she laughed as we headed to the tunnels that would take us below the castle. “During the first stages of their growth,” she waved a hand toward the dogs, “it's best for me to be in my dog shape with them. Then I can show them the way to transform later, when they've accepted that we are multi-bodied beings.”
“Oooh, I like that,” I nodded, “multi-bodied beings. It sounds more fascinating than shifters.”
“Well, we don't just shift, we have multiple forms and we choose which one to inhabit.”
We continued to talk about her children and the problems with fey fertility as we descended. The luxurious castle corridors changed to rougher versions of themselves, torches stuck into the walls instead of floating faerie lights, walls of chiseled stone instead of polished, and carpeting disappearing completely.
Neala told me how excited she'd been when she found out she was pregnant and why she'd reacted so strongly when I'd accidentally fallen into her den and onto her pups. She had attacked me then, and I'd understood, even kept Arach from exacting punishment on her, because I knew she was defending her children but now I really understood. This wasn't just a litter of phooka pups, this was a miracle, the first litter of phookas whelped in three thousand years.
I looked them over with new eyes. No wonder everyone had been so shocked when I'd picked one of them up and put it on my lap at the feast that time. I'd thought it was because they knew the phooka mother was so defensive of her young but it was so much more than that. They'd feared the pup would hurt me, or even that the mother might, and that Arach would be forced to hurt them in return. These children weren't just their mother's pride and joy, they were the greatest treasures of the House of Fire. A source of pride for us all.
We made it to the cavern the Hidden Ones lived in and I shot a surreptitious look at Neala. She watched her pups intently but the mere fact that she'd trusted me enough to follow me there with her precious children was humbling. I shouldn't have been surprised though, she had fought beside me against one of the most terrifying gods there was. This was a woman of courage.
“Hey guys,” I called out brightly as we stepped into the warm chamber.
Heat rose from the rivers of lava that dissected the vast space, creating the perfect atmosphere for fire fey. The lava itself cast a warm glow around the room and gave enough light to see but I'd had some fey lights brought down into the central cavern so it wouldn't feel so gloomy. Not a lot of them, just a few scattered around to help the Hidden Ones adjust to being in the light.
They seemed to like it and one of the globes had been placed directly above a stalagmite that had been cut to form shelves. It illuminated the few belongings the Hidden Ones shared. There were bits of stone and feathers, odds and ends, and then amidst it all was a large mirror set in a gilded stand. I'd given it to them on my last visit, so they could admire themselves. Judging by its prominent display, they used it often.
In my opinion, the shelf of shared items said a lot about the Hidden Ones. We're taught when we're young to share, most of us aren't born with a generous nature. Our instincts tell us to keep things for ourselves, it's all about survival. But we've evolved and most parents teach their children the virtues of kindness, generosity, and sharing. That the Hidden Ones had so little and yet shared it all with each other as if it were the most natural thing in the world to them, showed me clearly the quality of their hearts.
This central stalagmite wasn't the only one in the room. Far from it, stalagmites and stalactites were sc
attered about the cavern and gave dramatic details to the otherwise open space. The glow of lava and the light from fey globes overhead showcased the geological formations like they were art pieces in a gallery, bringing out colors and minerals in the rocks that had been previously hidden in the shadows, much like the Hidden Ones themselves. It was a whole new world down in the cavern now and it made me both happy over the change and sad that it had taken so long to happen.
The combined illumination reached some of the upper areas of the cavern too, and I could just make out the bodies of some of the more insect-like Hidden Ones perched in crevices or hanging on gigantic webs that glimmered in the low light. They'd heard me though, and were slowly descending on threads or scurrying down the walls, coming eagerly to greet their visitors.
The phooka pups yipped and danced about excitedly as the Hidden Ones emerged from the connected tunnels and gathered to greet us. They looked over the dogs with surprise, the expression still managing to look terrifying on their twisted faces, but I found it endearing. One of the young dogs raced over to a Hidden One with leathery skin and legs like a rhinoceros. It barked and jumped up on those thick legs, demanding attention. Neala tensed next to me but I held a hand out to her.
“It'll be okay.”
She swallowed hard but held back, and I loved her for it. What a leap of faith, trust not just in me but in fey who were often viewed as monsters, even by their own Kingdom.
“Helloooo,” the Hidden One reached down with bird-like talons to lift up the dog. “Who are youuuu?”
The dog changed into a little girl with hair like her mother's. She blinked large, red eyes up at the Hidden One and beamed. “Gráinne,” she said carefully and then clapped her hands in delight of her own accomplishment.
“Oh noooow,” he laughed, a wheezing sound that made the rest of the Hidden Ones start twittering in amusement. “That'ssss a big name for such a wee little lasssss. It means she who inspiressss terror. Can I have it inssstead? I think it'ssss better ssssuited to me.”
